Engineer, handyman, spiritual seeker and friend, George Clement Heaton passed away peacefully on July 10, 2015, at the age of 89, at the Stanford home he shared for 35 years with his beloved partner Sita de Leeuw, who predeceased him on May 18, 2015. He had recently been hospitalized with pneumonia and died of natural causes.
George was born on September 22, 1925, in the town of Gerrards Cross, England, to William Heaton and May King-Smith Heaton. He was educated at public school and at Oxford and Manchester universities, achieving a master's degree with honors in mechanical engineering.
In the mid ‘50s George left England for an engineering internship in Toronto, Canada. There, he met his wife, Shirley, who was also British and was in Toronto for an occupational therapy internship. After getting married in England, they relocated to Phoenix, Arizona where their daughter Wendy was born, followed by the birth of their son Christopher a year later. Finding the desert climate too hot for their liking, they moved to Costa Mesa, California in 1959, where their third child, Noel, was born. During that time George worked as a mechanical engineer in the Aerospace industry.
George and Shirley were married for 10 years. Unfortunately, “irreconcilable differences” resulted in divorce, at which point George subsequently moved to Santa Barbara where he worked for private industry. In the mid ‘70s he moved to the Bay Area, living at various times in San Francisco and on the Peninsula. It was during this time that he worked at Karl Pribram’s neurobiology lab at Stanford (where he wired monkeys’ brains for research experiments) that he and Sita began their long standing relationship.
George's hobbies included glass ceramic art (for which he developed a patented process), sketching and videography. He was known for his keen intellect and dry wit. He brought a balance of the practical and the poetic to his life. The garden he and Sita created was like a beautiful poem, overgrown, and full of surprises like a koi pond.
George was a very active and devoted member of the Palo Alto Friends Meeting. He signed the membership book upon his admission by convincement on October 14, 1983. He helped the Meeting in numerous ways over the nearly 32 years that he was a member. He loved the Meeting community and rarely missed a Meeting for Worship. He last attended just a few days before he died. He regularly stood and gave ministry from his heart. Very often his words challenged and inspired others to rise and speak. He also served the Meeting by being on various committees. He was a member of the Hospitality and Welcoming Committee, the Oversight Committee, the Library Committee (audio/visual) and the Visiting Committee of which he was Clerk for two years. He was the Meeting Representative to Ben Lomond Quaker Center and he was also our Recording Clerk for one year. Although never a member of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, George could always be counted on to help fix broken items whether it be a lock or a faucet or some other item that needed attention. He was a master handyman.
He was a spiritual seeker interested in all things metaphysical. He was open to all religions and he read extensively about various spiritual practices. He and Sita traveled occasionally to visit several spiritual guides who became close family friends. He became severely depressed during the period following his divorce from Shirley and was lucky enough to find a religious scholar who had a retreat in the foothills of Mt. Whitney. This scholar visited Palo Alto Meeting once, and spoke that Hinduism gave us knowledge of the mind, Buddhism of the heart, and Christianity, of the will.
He shared books he found helpful. One was meditations on each part of the body. When it came to the back, he had the unpleasant remembrance of being thrashed at school, but through this study he came to a sensation of light flooding his being. He wanted to wake up the Meeting, as he had been awakened, and make us become more like the early Friends who quaked.
George’s ashes have been spread partly in the redwood grove behind our meetinghouse and partly at Ben Lomond Quaker Center.
George will be missed by his three children: Wendy Heaton Orlik of Nevada City, California; Christopher Heaton of Fullerton, California; and Noel Heaton of Santa Ana, California; as well as by his younger brother, Ral Heaton, of Bogner Regis, England; his nieces and nephews; and his many other extended family members and friends.